Der Eiffelturm

Among the numerous essays by Roland Barthes that have become classics, "The Eiffel Tower," written in 1964, is one of the most well-known and influential. In this work, the structuralist applies his analytical tools to the world-famous landmark of Paris and all of France, arriving at surprising and still impressive results. The Eiffel Tower is a myth of everyday life, a symbol of technological innovation, an unavoidable tourist destination, a landmark of emerging globalization, omnipresent in every book, every film, on television, and identifiable by everyone on Facebook and Twitter – in short, a sign for everything and anything. For Roland Barthes, the Eiffel Tower is an almost irreplaceable object: "Through the Eiffel Tower, people exercise that great function of the imaginary which is their freedom, as no history, however dark it may be...".